Best Software Tuesday launched a massive midmarket blitz with a new partner program that puts its broad line of software products under one channel program backed up by guaranteed lead generation and a new zero percent financing plan.

Hewlett-Packard's new PartnerOne channel program will substantially increase margins for partners that tightly align with the vendor, according to solution providers that have evaluated the new plan, which is set to launch Nov. 1.

In the latest installment of a growing rivalry between the two biggest powers in storage, Hewlett-Packard on Monday filed a patent infringement lawsuit against EMC in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

In his first interview since taking his post a month ago, BEA Systems' new channel chief said BEA will begin building a partner strategy in the SMB market as it continues to work toward reaching existing channel goals.

Storage Technology (StorageTek) is unveiling new products this week in a strategy to take back part of the market it lost when Hewlett-Packard dropped the vendor in favor of Quantum/ATL as HP's OEM tape library supplier.